Still have no definite diagnosis

[janodorset]

Hi again. I went to see a consultant at Southampton on Saturday - my husband found him on the web, spoke to his secretary, and he could see us privately on Saturday. His comment 'It would be a brave doctor who said you didn't have temporal arteritis' has still left me in limbo as he said a biopsy now may have limited use. So, back to my GP Thursday to discuss. GP advised trying to reduce from 30mg to 25mg prednisolone (Southampton guy said this would be his starting dose) I tried that - 2-3 days later bad pain again so made decision for myself to reduce by 2.5mg and that worked better - a return of pain but not so bad and settled after a day or so.

[PMRpro Ambassador]

The Southampton guy would start with 30 or 25mg? When he thinks it is possibly GCA? That is very low.

[janodorset in reply to PMRpro]

I seem to fall within the category of patients that are 'strongly suggestive' of GCA, but don't tick all the boxes, hence the cautious approach regarding steroids.

[DorsetLady PMRGCAuk volunteer]

Yep, agree with PMRpro, 25mg is very low dose for GCA.

Wise move to go for 2.5mg reduction, and the couple of days of pains you had were probably steroid withdrawal. One way around that is to staggering your reduction over a few weeks rather than overnight. Various reduction plans are available.